A thoroughly engaging, ingeniously designed Latino celebration.
A concertina-style board book features the Spanish nursery rhyme “Los pollitos dicen” on one side and an English translation on the other.
Readers who tap the book out of its slipcase can choose either version; neither language is prioritized in the book’s accordion-fold presentation. The illustrations are identical, as are the interactive features. The plot is simple: the chubby-cheeked yellow chicks squeal when they hatch, when they’re cold, and when they want a meal, and their hen mother fetches corn to feed them and then cuddles them to sleep. Charmingly, even in the English translation, the chicks squeal in Spanish: “¡pío! ¡pío! ¡pío!” a protest that is printed in large, red letters on the undersides of several flaps. (Others lift to allow readers to husk corn and to see the chicks nestled under the hen’s wing; a spinning wheel allows readers to send the rather tired-looking hen walking out to the cornfield.) The English translation shows itself in a couple of places, when the mother warms the chicks “head to heel” in a rather forced rhyme and in abandoning the sonorously stretched-out “a-cu-rru-ca-ditos” for the rather paler “snuggled up with mummy.” Still, in an environment when all too often it’s the non-English language that is the second-class citizen, this seems entirely forgivable. English speakers will want to read the Spanish so they can enjoy it fully.
A thoroughly engaging, ingeniously designed Latino celebration. (Board book. 1-5)Pub Date: April 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9969959-0-0
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Encantos
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
An acceptable and sturdy addition to the Easter basket for baby bunnies deemed too young to handle Dorothy Kunhardt's more...
Following on the successful Five Little Pumpkins (2003), Yaccarino teams with Rabe for bunnies.
The five pastel bunnies are cute enough, and the rhymes are accurate, if somewhat wordy for toddlers. But without a clear one-to-one relationship between the words and the pictures, it is not always clear which bunny is speaking and what is being counted. The bunnies, identified as first, second, and so on, hop around the pages instead of staying in a consistent order as the rhyme implies. Naming them by color might have been a better choice, but that would mean abandoning the finger-play counting-rhyme formula. The children who show up to hunt the eggs are a multicultural cast of cartoonish figures with those in the background drawn as blue and green silhouettes. Though the text on the back cover invites children to count the eggs, there is no hint as to how many eggs they should find. Neither the verse nor the pictures provide counting assistance. The youngest children will not care about any of this; they will be content to point out the different colors of the bunnies and the patterns on the eggs.
An acceptable and sturdy addition to the Easter basket for baby bunnies deemed too young to handle Dorothy Kunhardt's more satisfying but fragile classic, Pat the Bunny. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-225339-2
Page Count: 16
Publisher: HarperFestival
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Festive fun.
A small fox receives a special holiday visitor: a Santa who is just his size.
How often do young children fear the world is too big and overwhelming to notice them? In this adorable board book with an appropriately tiny trim, a diminutive fox worries that Santa will overlook him because he is “too little / And Santa’s sled too high.” But the “teeny tiny fox”—and toddler listeners—is reassured that he won’t be forgotten when the titular “teeny tiny Santa” not only notices the fox, but brings him a fun-sized “teeny tiny treat,” finishing up the visit with a “teeny tiny pat”—all images that are sure to delight youngsters. Santa leaves as the fox curls up in a den carpeted with a cozy blanket and bedecked with lights; it’s a gratifying ending. The text is related in a staccato rhythm, and it takes a verse or two to become accustomed to the book’s clipped tone, but the repetitive “teeny tiny” refrain is catchy. Visually, it’s holly-jolly, with clean-looking digital art using simple geometric shapes to form triangular trees and circular, grinning snowman while icy blue-green backgrounds allow the flashy copper fox and pale-skinned Santa, with his “ruby-colored” cheeks, to look vibrant. The rotund Santa, the angular and sleek fox, and a team of wee reindeer all have a vintage, 1950s look that well complements the straightforward story.
Festive fun. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-31849-4
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
